Beverly Garland's Series Decoy Coming to DVD This Month (1 Viewer)

[Flashgear]

Here's some nice original promotional photos for Decoy...

Glamour photo of the lovely lady...

Rock climbing (Bronson Canyon?) in her high heels and in high style...

A collage of photos from the great season 8 Gunsmoke episode "The Odyssey of Jubal Tanner" (May 18, 1963)...one of my favorite Beverly Garland guest starring performances...Peter Breck (Big Valley), Denver Pyle and Kevin Hagen were also in this powerful and touching episode...

With her co-star in Roger Corman's 1956 schlockfest It Conquered the World...who can blame this monster for leering? I'd want to invade this planet also...

An interesting curio...Beverly Garland on the set of the game show Stump the Stars in the 1962 to 1963 relaunch of the show...Barbara Hale of Perry Mason doing the pantomine for Hans Conried (Uncle Tonoose of Danny Thomas/Make Room for Daddy) and Sebastian Cabot (Checkmate)...might be Pat Harrington with his backed turned opposite them as host of the primetime CBS Game Show...

Another episode of Stump the Stars in 1962 to '63...Beverly Garland now performing a pantomine for Hans Conried, Sebastian Cabot and Mary Tyler Moore of the the Dick Van Dyke Show...

 

[hypnohighball]

That episode of Gunsmoke is absolutely incredible - it's one of my favorite tv episodes ever. Thanks for the photos.

 

[Bert Greene]

I'm looking forward to this, as I've always liked the series and collected all the various PD discs as they've been released through the years. The series is quite good, although it occasionally dipped into a bit of sensationalistic seediness (which was something of a trend for 57/58 made-for-syndication crime shows, like "Mike Hammer," "Official Detective" and such). Although not a regular, you can sometimes spot Joseph Campanella's brother Frank in the series, playing Casey's boss. But it's obviously Beverly Garland that really makes the series. She's terrific in the role, even with the dated trappings of the voice-overs. I've always liked her. I had lunch at her hotel in North Hollywood many times, where you would always see her and her kids bustling around. Anyway, the only thing worrying me is the crunching of 13 episodes per disc.

 

[Bob Gu]

Randall/Flashgear, thanks for taking the time to post all these fun stills on all these threads.

Beverly Garland, Barbara Eden, MTM, Yvonne Craig, and Roy Rogers co-star Penny Edwards, always have something extra going on with them in how they always look great in the fashions they wear. Dancing and modeling training really makes them stand out, posture/attitude wise. Beverly Garland even looks fashionable in her western, "The Gunslinger".

Rooting around the internet, today looking up STUMP THE STARS, I think the man, on the end of the couch on the right, in the first picture, is John Forsythe and the woman, in the middle, in the second picture, is Eartha Kitt.

 

[Flashgear]

Thanks, Bob! That could well be the lovely Eartha Kitt...I thought it was MTM, but couldn't enlarge the photo, which was not captioned...a lot of these actresses can put on a wide range of dramatically varying "looks", with different hair styles, coloring and makeup, making them hard to identify...I know that Stump the Stars featured a Dick Van Dyke Show cast episode, along with other CBS show's casts in the 1962 to 1963 season...here's a kinescope still from one of those episodes, with Dick Van Dyke, Mary Tyler Moore, Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam...

Another Kinescope still from Stump the Stars, '62 - '63...Ross Martin, with back to camera, performing pantomine to Sebastian Cabot, Beverly Garland and Mamie Van Doren (?)...

A great promotional photo from a Perry Mason cast appearance on that same season's Stump the Stars...Barbara Hale pantomining for William Talman, Raymond Burr and William Hopper...

Pat Harrington Jr. as host of Stump the Stars...

I agree that Beverly Garland is one of those special and uniquely sexy performers...easily delightful, and when given the chance to shine, a very fine actress too...here she is in Corman's Gunslinger (1956) a bit of a guilty pleasure that I also enjoy...from the same year as Joan Crawford's Johnny Guitar...

With Clint Eastwood in the Rawhide season 5 episode "Incident of the Gallows Tree" (Feb. 22, 1963)...one of her three Rawhide episodes...the others being "Incident of the Roman Candles" (S1) and "Incident at Sugar Creek" (S5)...

Another of my all time favorite Beverly Garland guest starring appearances...as the alluring Pirate "Coco LaSalle" in a couple episodes of the great Jock Mahoney's Yancy Derringer in 1958...

 

[Flashgear]

So, I see that the Dick Van Dyke Show cast episode of Stump the Stars is complete on youtube in a quality kinescope...Nov. 26, 1962...with Beverly Garland, Sebastian Cabot, Ross Martin and Diana Dors (not Mamie Van Doren)...there are well over 22 episodes from the primetime 1962 to '63 game show on youtube...You really see the performance grace of the Lovely and Great Mary Tyler Moore, who was a heck of a dancer too...



The Perry Mason cast episode of Stump the Stars (July 8, 1963) with Hans Conried, Sebastian Cabot, Stubby Kaye and Beverly Garland...these are very fun to watch...Beverly Garland is radiant and delightful..complete with commercials on 16 mm film...Jesse White for Rice Chex...

 

[Bob Gu]

When Warner Archive released the Wild Bill Elliott Monogram/Allied Artist movies the only one missing was BITTER CREEK, the one with Beverly Garland.

Using the detective skills I picked up watching 77 SUNSET STRIP.... In this case that means cross-checking at IMDB, the stars as selves section:

According to IMDB Mamie Van Dorn appeared once on STUMP THE STARS with Clint Walker. That one is up on youtube. The Perry Mason and Dick Van Dyke Show STUMP THE STARS episodes are up too.

The blonde in your picture is Diana Dors, who was a regular on the show.

Barbara Hale appeared twice, once on the PERRY MASON team and once as a guest, playing against a team with John Forsythe, Richard Long, Tommy Noonan, and Diana Dors. I guessed Forsythe for your picture. IMDB lists Mike Stokey as the host for that episode.

A general picture search of "Beverly Garland Stump The Stars" brought up a companion picture to one you posted with Eartha Kitt giving the clues (Beverly is in the same dress she wears in the first picture) and another picture of Eartha Kitt in her same outfit with Robert Clary who was on the opposing team for that Stump The Stars episode.

Beverly Garland makes a nice impression in "NOT OF THIS EARTH".

EDIT: I gotta learn to type faster!

 

[Flashgear]

Great Info, Bob...I do like your detective methodology...no doubt you could be a full partner with Stu Bailey and Jeff Spencer...with you on the payroll, Kookie would have to keep parking cars at Dino's...ha, ha...me, I'd probably be parking cars and collecting markers for Roscoe...

I didn't know until today that those Stump the Stars episodes were on Youtube...a very nice find, as they're mostly from good quality Kinescopes...some others directly from 16 mm film...I'll have to watch 'em all soon, as you never know when, or if, they might disappear...

Did Warner Archive ever address why Bitter Creek was not released with the others? I imagine it must be a film elements issue, inherent in "Poverty Row" film archives...

Not of This Earth might be my favorite Corman movie with Beverly Garland...boy, she's poppin' in that one, ha, ha...

I'm sure hoping that Decoy has had some restoration work done on it, or is sourced from better elements, even at the bargain price...although what we have seen in other PD releases (like Alpha) looks mostly pretty good, and is mostly complete...I've been watching a few Decoy episodes lately...really enjoy the show, but wow, talk about second hand smoke...that gal could sure smoke 'em, ha, ha...great to see all the NYC actors fraternity that we see in shows like Naked City, Defenders, Brenner, Car 54, etc...Martin Balsam, Peter Falk, Colleen Dewhurst, Al Lewis, Lois Nettleton, Barbara Barrie, Joseph and Frank Campanella (in the same episode), Ed Asner, Vincent Gardenia, John Cassavettes, Larry Hagman, Suzanne Pleshette, Simon Oakland, Zohra Lampert, Mike Kellin, Bert Freed etc...

 

[Bob Gu]

Thanks, Dad.

On a western board someone asked Warner Archive about BITTER CREEK and was told they were still working on it and would eventually release it. I think it's up on the WAC streaming site. I have not seen it, there, but have it on an old tape.

Maybe WAC is saving BITTER CREEK for a Beverly Garland Collection!

YouTube is a wonderful place. Not only do I have a pile of unwatched impulse buys and "gee, I bought the first five seasons I have to buy the last 5 seasons" buys of DVDs, now I have GIGS of unwatched youtube downloads to add to my viewing pile.

 

[Gary16]

Just watched and enjoyed the first episode of "Decoy." The transfer is surprisingly good. Clean video. Acceptable audio. If all the episodes look this good it will make this set the bargain of the year. Nice booklet enclosed too.

 

[Jack P]

I was supposed to get this today but Amazon to their discredit has saddled me with "delayed in transit."

 

[ChrisALM]

Mine was supposed to arrive yesterday (Tuesday), but wasn't delivered. I checked the order online and and it shows a revised arrival date of May 30 - June 1. I wasn't able to check my mail today, but as of Wednesday evening it is still showing the revised delivery dates. Maybe it has something to do with the holiday, but they should have been able to work around that. So, not sure what is going on.

 

[Darby67]

Just watched and enjoyed the first episode of "Decoy." The transfer is surprisingly good. Clean video. Acceptable audio. If all the episodes look this good it will make this set the bargain of the year. Nice booklet enclosed too.

Gary:

Very happy to hear this news; thanks for posting it. I ordered my copy from Walmart via Site to Store and will be picking it up tomorrow.

 

[Jack P]

Mine finally came and I've started watching. I don't know if its been remastered or not recently but it's definitely clear these are sourced from 35mm elements and that makes a *big* difference compared to many other shows of the era.

 

[smithbrad]

Mine finally came and I've started watching. I don't know if its been remastered or not recently but it's definitely clear these are sourced from 35mm elements and that makes a *big* difference compared to many other shows of the era.

Based on the early responses about the video quality, I'd say this may be a good example of how some may focus too heavily on bit rate as an evaluation of quality due to the numeric nature of the metric. Thirteen episodes per disk of an older show that maximizes the available half hour time slot should be horrendous based on the bit rate used in this release, but it apparently isn't. I'm not saying it wouldn't be somewhat better at say eight episodes per disk, but just that the quality of the source has so so much more to do with the outcome then the bit rate. However, given that we don't generally have knowledge of the condition of the source and we can test bit rate, I think we give it too much credence in an evaluation of a release. This is all just based on my personal experience playing with captures and converting files.

 

[Peter M Fitzgerald]

Got my Decoy set in the mail the other day; a cursory check of the episodes on the first disc showed that the majority of transfers looked quite good... very much like that short video clip sample on the defunct Liberation Films website, that I mentioned earlier in this thread. Not as razor-sharp/pristine as the best b&w stuff from CBS/Paramount, but still very nice. The fourth episode on Disc 1, "To Trap a Thief", looks to be sourced from lesser materials (likely 16mm), and so looks a bit softer, scratchy and more blown-out, but isn't too bad, like a decent-looking public domain release. The final episode on Disc 1, "My Brother's Killer", looks a little softer than the other episodes, and the motion looks a bit clipped, but is otherwise okay. I'm assuming this is another episode sourced from elsewhere, rather than the result of compression on the disc itself, since the other episodes on Disc 1 don't have this "clipped motion" look (which isn't that bad, just a little noticeable). I'm guessing this is a similar situation to another 'Official Films' distributed series, Yancy Derringer, which overall looked quite nice, but had one episode that was in rougher shape, and seemed to be sourced from video (maybe from a collector), rather than film.

The first Decoy episode, "Stranglehold", has no chapter stops; the other episodes have one stop each, at the episode's on-screen title, about a minute-and-a-half after each episode opens. No bonus features on the disc, but the case includes a good booklet with a handy episode guide, photos and trivia... a nice throwback to the days when more DVD sets included booklets, in contrast to today's 'no-frills' norm. I haven't actually sat down and watched a full episode on the set yet (I've been busy the last few days), but from what I've seen so far, this set does seem well worth it, especially for the price.

 

[GMBurns]

Received my copy of Decoy today and it looks as great as everyone has said. I love the series and have collected the PD releases from Alpha, but this release is so much better, the libretto is really informative, and it's so inexpensive as well. I purchased Film Chest's release of Mr. and Mrs. North a few years ago and have loved that, but they outdid themselves with this new release of Decoy. I hope sales will be such that they will be able to give similar treatment to other classic tv shows of that era. The company is just a half hour down the highway from me, I may send them an email later and thank them. I never expected something this good, but am looking forward to watching a few episodes later this evening.

 

[ChrisALM]

My set arrived today, finally. I haven't had the chance to watch any episodes yet, but looked through the accompanying booklet. The booklet is a nice addition to the set, something surprising in a set at this price point.

 

[Regulus]

Since I'm saving my money for my vacation this August (I'm flying to Tennessee to see the Total Solar Eclipse). I can't afford any DVD sets at this time, but after I return I'll use my "Birthday Money" (My Birthday takes place two days before the eclipse), so one way or another I'll get this set.

Oh yeah, I already have one of those "Unofficial" sets of this show, I'm sure Mr. B.F.Hammer will be glad to get this show, he always find them to be A SMASH!

 

[Jack P]

Episode #4 is the first one I've seen that looks to be 16mm sourced compared to Episodes 1-3.